Tommy knew it, too. Up the stairs we went, to a balcony of booths and tables beyond a velvet rope and a stern brick in a suit who nodded to us as we passed.
The entire space seemed to be devoted to the party we were attending. From corner to corner were people in costume.
Correction: immortal goddesses and demigods in costume. They were too beautiful to be human.
I recognized a dozen models, scanned the faces of two dozen more who, if they weren’t models, should be. There were at least four actors who’d been in major motion pictures and a handful of Billboard Top 100 musicians, and that was just counting the ones I could see. At least a third of the party had another human wrapped around them like a stole.
Aurora Park squealed from across the room and ran—ran in platform heels that gained her at least eight inches of height—toward us. Tommy didn’t let me go, but he put himself between us in case she was going to jump for it. The way she was swinging her drink around, the insides sloshing dangerously as she hauled ass across the room, I figured she’d been partying for some time.
“Oh my God, Tommy! You look amazing!” She flung herself into him and planted a big old kiss on his cheek.
He peeled her off, and once she was stable, he let her go and reached for me, tucking me into his side.
Her face stretched into an O as she awwwed at us.
“Rory, this is Amelia Bane, my wife.”
She smiled so genuinely, I decided I didn’t want to trip her when she walked away after all. She flung herself at me this time, grabbing me around the shoulders for a crushing hug.
“Amelia, I am so fucking happy to finally meet you!” She twisted me with every syllable of so fucking happy, and I couldn’t help but giggle. She leaned back to look at me. “God, you are the cutest fucking thing in the entire world. And look at you two together!” She shook her head at us, smiling proudly. “You two are dapper as fuck.”
Tommy pulled me back into his side. “Happy birthday, Rory.”
“Thank you,” she said on a curtsy. “Guess who I am?” She held up her hands and did a twirl. Her teddy was black and royal blue, a red capelet on her shoulders and a red ribbon in her black hair. Her legs were clad in thigh-highs the color of a daffodil. The rear of her getup was sheer with a red satin bow just over her ass, the tails hanging down to almost hide her crack.
Almost.
“Snow White!” I cheered. “That is fantastic.”
She hooked an arm over my shoulder and smirked at Tommy. “I like her.”
“Me too,” Tommy said, smirking back.
“Come on,” she said, pulling us as she pointed with her drink to the crowd. “Let’s get you guys some drinks.”
We made it all the way to the bar before she got distracted and flitted off, leaving us alone again.
I sighed and smiled up at Tommy. “Aurora Park thinks I’m cute.”
He laughed. “You’re not cute, Melia. You’re hot.”
I blushed and rolled my eyes. “I can get behind cute. Adorable even. But hot is a level I will never achieve.”
His dark eyes glinted, his brows lowering, drawing together. But that pouty, sideways smile stretched. He pulled me into him and held me against his body. Heat waved off his naked chest like a furnace.
“That’s where you’re wrong. Never in my life have I ever wanted someone like I want you.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but he kissed me instead, swallowing my objection. He took advantage of the shadows and the crowd, kissing me deeply, telegraphing things he’d said and things he felt, things I didn’t believe until he kissed me like that.
He made me feel as beautiful as he’d said I was.
My arms were wound around his neck, my hips pressed into his, and my back arched away as he dipped me gently. And then he broke the kiss, though he didn’t let me go. Instead, he smiled at me, his eyes hot as coals.
“Believe me now?”
My tongue was useless now that he was done with it. So I nodded.
He chuckled and set me to rights before towing me to the bar to get a drink.
I’d never been so grateful for liquor in my life.
We wandered around the party for the span of a couple of drinks, at which point, my bladder made its size known.
I squeezed Tommy’s bicep, which